| Lay leader struggles after 9-11 attacks
 Defense
industry employee finds conflict between human nature and Christian
nature.
By Michael Wacht
ORLANDO — David Lundquist makes no apologies
about what he does for a living. “I’m in the bomb business, and
business is booming,” Lundquist said. He works for defense
contractor Lockheed-Martin here and is involved in a cooperative
program with an Israeli company.
Lundquist is also the lay leader at Orlando’s
St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and involved in spiritual
development ministry there.
The events of Sept. 11, 2001, have caused
Lundquist to examine his life in light of his Christian faith.
“My job is part of the struggle,” he said,
adding people have asked him about the seeming conflict between his
work and his discipleship. “In 1981, a medical doctor asked me, ‘How
can you do this?’ My answer then was that after World War II, the
United States did something very important. It changed the name of the
Department of War to the Department of Defense. I’ve grown since
then. Now, I tell people, ‘I do it to protect the rights of people
like you to ask me questions like that.’
“The country was founded by people seeking
religious freedom. The government was set up to protect those
freedoms. The most legitimate function of the federal government is to
provide a national defense.”
Lundquist’s struggle comes from his
understanding of human nature and the nature of political systems. “The
part I struggle with is the products we develop to enable ourselves
and others to defend themselves are used by humans, who may use them
for their own agenda,” he said. “And that bothers me a lot. Take
the Taliban. We helped the Taliban defeat the Soviets. We armed them
and gave them money.”
It was that same Taliban that supported the
terrorists who attacked the United States last fall. Lundquist was
personally affected by that event. He was flying from London to
Atlanta after a business trip when the four jetliners were hijacked
and crashed.
“Three hours into the flight the video system
went down,” he said. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
Two hours later, the captain advised the
passengers “of a serious situation” and said they were being
diverted to the nearest airport. Lundquist’s flight landed in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and 12 hours later he and fellow
passengers were transported to Shearwater Naval Air Station.
At the base Lundquist had time to process what
he had learned about the events of Sept. 11. One night after dinner he
met the base chaplain and asked if he could talk.
Lundquist told the chaplain his 11 years in the
United States military and more than 20 years in the aerospace
industry convinced him the United States needed to immediately attack
the people responsible for the attacks. But his life as a Christian
and his position as lay leader of his church made him believe there
should be another way to respond.
“The chaplain said, ‘David, God bless you,
bless your struggle. I wish more people of faith would have the
struggle you’re having,’ ” Lundquist said.
The chaplain told Lundquist many people of faith
open their “God box” on Sundays only, then close it and open their
“world box” Monday through Friday.
“He told me, ‘You’re trying to have both
boxes open at the same time…and live as a complete person,’ ”
Lundquist said. “I told him, ‘That was very profound for me, but
what do I do about it?”
Nearly a week later, Lundquist was back home and
attending a church council meeting at St. Luke’s. He told his story
and shared his struggle. “Now I’m back in my own community and can
start to process what happened in my own community of faith,” he
said.
Lundquist spoke with his pastor, the Rev. Bill
Barnes, who said he was having the same struggle, but in reverse. His
life and work as a Christian minister gave him a desire for a
peaceful, healing response, but part of him wanted retribution.
Lundquist said Barnes told him he went back to
the United Methodist baptismal vows, which ask candidates if they will
resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they occur.
“That’s not passive,” Lundquist said. “To
resist something is to do something. It is appropriate for Christians
to act. The United Methodist membership vows call us to resist, to act…not
in a vengeful way, but in justice.”
That realization led Lundquist to consider his
own baptismal vows. “I’m called not just to confront the huge evil
of 9-11, but the small injustices that occur everyday,” he said.
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